Adding goggles to your smartphone

- Your eyes have a field of view of roughly 180 degrees.…Now, you don't always notice this wide perspective…in everyday life, because your brain focuses…your attention on particular areas of your field of view.…Because of that focus, when you are watching…a TV or movie screen, you can feel fairly immersed…in the content, even though your eyes are actually seeing…much more than what's on the screen.…Most current VR headsets don't replicate…the full 180 degree field of view…that you normally have, but by blocking out…your peripheral view, they might allow you…to feel more engaged with the VR content…that you're viewing.…

Google has pioneered a very inexpensive approach…to VR goggles, by exploiting the fact…that you already have a powerful computer…and high quality display in your pocket,…if you have a smartphone.…The Google Cardboard is just that.…It's pre-cut, pre-scored cardboard that can be folded up…to create a headset that you can slip your phone into.…The phone provides the screen,…while the phone's accelerometers allow you…

Author

Released

9/13/2016

Virtual reality can transport you across town or around the world. And it's easy and inexpensive to test the (virtual) waters—not only as someone who views VR content but also creates it.

In this course, photographer, educator, and author Ben Long introduces the essential concepts and tools behind photographic- and video-based VR. After detailing a brief history of VR, Ben shows a sampling of inexpensive VR viewers (such as VR apps and VR goggles for your smartphone) and where to go to check out great VR content. He also reviews the tools and techniques for creating your own VR photos and videos, and dealing with challenges in post-production, such as moving media to the computer, stitching and mapping 360-degree images and video, playing back VR video, and sharing VR content online.